Is it better to sell some investments and pay %100 cash for a home or is it better to get a mortgage?

Would the tax benefits of the mortgage outweigh the income from the dividends? - Providing that I have good credit and that capital gains tax is not an issue with the sale of the investments.


So basically is it better to have a fully paid off home or to keep that money in the stock market?Is it better to sell some investments and pay %100 cash for a home or is it better to get a mortgage?
If your investments are earning more than you are paying in a mortgage interest rate than its always better to get a mortgage. For instance if your mortgage interest rate is 5%, and your investments are getting you 10% than obviously you are going to make more money with you investment than with the house.





Another factor is to look at what your LONG term rate of of house value could go up. The nation average over the past 20 years is 7%, subtract out your 5% mortage and you get a return of investment of 2% + whatever your cash is earning invested, 10%. Total return of 12% opposed to just the 7% if you paid in cash.





Keep in mind, you can't just sell you house immediately if something comes up and you need money like you can with stocks or mutual funds.Is it better to sell some investments and pay %100 cash for a home or is it better to get a mortgage?
I think that the best way to decide would be to look at the Rate of Return on your investiments , will they exceed the increase in value of your home annually usually about 3-5% depending on the area you live in. You also have to look at regardless of credit if you have a mortgage over 80% of the value of the home you will have to have Personal Mortgage Insurance, which runs about $70 monthly per 100k. This is not tax deductible unless you until this year you have an annual income not exceeding 120k.


This is not a problem most people have. Either way you seem to be in good shape.
The tax question first - you get a $10,000 standard deduction (married joint or $5,000 single). If you have enough deductions without mortgage interest and RE taxes to itemize then you get full advantage of paying these. Assume a 40% federal and state tax rate - then a 6% mortgage costs you only 3.6%. Pretty cheap money. If you cannot itemize then you only get part of the tax advantage of the interest RE tax payments making your cost somewhat higher.





Next as an investor you should know about leverage. Let's say you buy a $100,000 house with 20% ($20,000) down. Next let's say the house only appreciates 2% next year or $2,000. That gives you 10% on your $20,000 investment. Next year say with principle payments you have $21,000 invested and it appreciates another 2% ($2040) it gives you a 9.7% return on your $21,000 investment. The third year say you get a 5% increase in the home's value and thru principle payments you have $22,200 invested. Your return ($5,200) is over 23% on your investment. Your average return over 3 years is over 14% a year. A pretty darn good return because of the 5 to 1 leaverage by mortgaging.





I don't know what you earn on your money, but it would seem to me you would want the leverage of a mortgage and let your investments ride. If things change you can always cash your investments in and pay off the mortgage, because mortgaging gives you high returns in even a morderately rising market.





JMHO
I think you want to have a mortgage so you dont have a bunch of cash tied up in a house..it doesnt make you any money until you sell it, whereas in the mean time you are losing out on the possibilites of investing.
Get a mortgage. 100% financing or put down no more than 20%. Their are plenty of lenders that will not require you to pay PMI for 100% loans.